Backwoods with Tim

August 01, 2007|By TIM RESH, For the Daily American

The question always comes up when mountainmen gather. How many days do you spend in Penn's Woods each year? The common answer is not as many as I would like. This seems to be universal. But as mountainmen we live with what is dealt to us and enjoy as many days a-field as we possibly can.

So enough discussion and back to business. With only ten days to be spent away from work, Andy decided to take all of them during archery season. He loves to spend time in Penn's Woods during the early fall. He also has a problem scheduling time away from work during the regular rifle season because of seniority. (A problem many mountainmen share.)

It was his second scheduled day a-field. The first day was beautiful. The only problem was that he only saw two deer all day. Neither were shooters. This second day he changed location. He chose a spot where there was five acres of timber situated between two cornfields. He had seen some activity in this area during his early season scouting. As he worked his way skyward during the early morning hours, he couldn't see the sky because of the darkness. But he could feel the air around him. This seasoned mountainman knew it was a feeling of moisture to come. When he reached the proper height in the oak, he harnessed in and waited for the new day to dawn. As he sat quietly, he could smell the scents of fall. Occasionally, he could hear the breeze working its way through the branches close to him. It just doesn't get any better than this, were his thoughts.

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Then just as the area around him started to brighten, he heard the brush crash behind his location. He turned his head. In the shadows he could faintly make out a deer, but a second later it was gone. With every passing minute, he could see a little better. After about 20 minutes he could pan the entire area around his location. Then toward the cornfield he saw movement close to the ground. As it came closer, he saw two raccoons. One following the other as they came toward him. They stopped for a moment at the base of his tree. Then they lumbered on for about 25 yards and both of them crawled into an old snag and disappeared. Apparently a den tree he thought. Then from the other cornfield he saw a deer coming. As it got closer, he recognized it from the day before. It had three points, but it took both sides to make three. He grinned and watched it pass his location. Then for the next hour it was quiet except for a couple of songbirds that decided to check him out.

Andy heard a rumbling and right away he pulled a sandwich from his pack to take care of it. Halfway through the sandwich he felt a couple of raindrops. He smiled again as he pulled his Gortex hat a little closer to his eyebrows. By the time he finished his sandwich the rain was coming down pretty hard. He continued to pan the area hoping that the rain was just a steady rain and not a storm.

Ten minutes later he had thoughts of heading for the ground because of the rain. Just as he made up his mind to do so he saw movement about 50 yards out. It was a deer moving at a slow pace in his direction. He could make out antlers, but in the rain he had trouble counting. The rain picked up. The deer was even harder to see. As the deer came closer, he counted to four on one side. At that point he made up his mind this buck was a shooter. He still couldn't see the other antler very well, but as it moved closer he readied his bow. When it got within the proper shooting distance, Andy pulled the string to his cheek, lined the hole in the peep with the proper pin, and released. The arrow hit its mark. When it did the buck took off for the cornfield.

Andy waited for 20 minutes. Then he headed for the ground. When he hit the ground, he nocked another arrow and slowly followed the buck's egress. A few feet into the cornfield he found the buck lying motionless. He walked up to the buck and counted to nine. With a smile on his face in the pounding rain he field-dressed the buck. Then he started for his truck thinking about tomorrow and the doe tag in his license holder.